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General Rules of Ceremony: The First Principle
In Ceremony and Celebration, Paul H.D. Lang discusses a broad spectrum of topics relating to Lutheran liturgical worship. In Chapter 9, he shows how the confessional Lutheran position on ceremony is based on both tradition and the Holy Scriptures. (For definitions of ritual and ceremonial, read this excerpt.) Lang identifies four general rules of ceremony, which we will be posting over the next several days. The first of these is the principle of reverence.
“Many rules of ceremony are governed by the principle of reverence. God demands reverence. We owe Him reverence. We owe it to Him, not only as an inner attitude, but also as an outward expression….We Christians show reverence to God because the Holy Spirit prompts and enables us to do the will of God in response to His grace and blessings. ‘Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear’ (Heb. 12:28). In the church’s worship we meet with God who has called us into His kingdom. Therefore we express our reverence toward Him, His Word, His sacraments, and all persons and things connected with our worship of Him.” (p. 61)
**This book is finishing up the process of being reprinted and will be available on Monday, April 25. Pre-order now to save 10% and be among the first to receive a copy from the new print run.
Available soon: Ceremony and Celebration
We are pleased to announce that Ceremony and Celebration is finishing up the process of being reprinted and will be available on Monday, April 25. Pre-order now to save 10% and be among the first to receive a copy from the new print run.
As noted in the Preface to Ceremony and Celebration, there is “a pious desire of both pastors and parishioners to be reverent in worship. That is the genius of this little book: It speaks to all participants in the Divine Service, not just pastors and theologians.” The Divine Service is where Christians gather around Word and Sacrament. Its liturgy provides the structure for keeping Christ as the central focus. The words, music, actions, and physical elements of the Divine Service all play a role in the liturgy. Pastors and parishioners join together to receive God’s gifts, each playing a distinct yet integral part as defined by the liturgy, in accordance with God’s will (Heb. 10:25; 1 Cor. 14:40).
Ceremony and Celebration is an essential resource not only for pastors, elders, altar guild members, organists, choir directors, and other congregational leaders, but also and especially for earnest laity who want to better understand the way we worship. Understanding what is going on around us increases our appreciation for and insight into the details of the liturgy.
Didache is back in stock!
A burst of orders several months ago caused Didache to suddenly sell out. We are pleased to announce that (after patiently waiting during these ubiquitous delays and shortages) it is back in stock! Find more details here.
“The Catechism confesses that the benefits of faithful eating and drinking in the Sacrament are the ‘forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation’ given us through our Lord’s words. The forgiveness of sins is the primary gift which God bestows in the Supper and is the foundation for life and salvation. Forgiveness of sins is the content of the New Testament. The word ‘testament’ indicates that a death is necessary. The death of the one who makes the testament is necessary for the testament to take effect. Jesus’ death is the energy unleashed in the Lord’s Supper. A testament also indicates heirs and inheritance. In this testament, ‘given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins’ indicates that we are heirs and that the inheritance is the forgiveness of sins won by Jesus’ atoning death as a sacrifice in our place.”
-John T. Pless in Didache, a book that instructs in a basic pattern of catechesis which recognizes that doctrine is drawn from the Holy Scriptures, confessed in Luther’s Small Catechism, and expressed in the hymnal. Suitable for group or individual study.
God With Us: Daily readings for Advent
God With Us by Pr. David H. Petersen contains fifty-nine sermons spanning Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, including daily sermons for all of Advent. Many customers tell us that they’ve given God With Us to family and friends since these brief sermons serve well for daily devotions.
Excerpts: “How might we keep the Law and love one another without fail, without holding back? Setting our will to do it or making promises and resolutions has never worked before, and it won’t work now. How might we keep the Law which we’ve never yet kept before? By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is it. It is the only way. It is in being loved, being forgiven, being fed the Holy Supper that not only is sin forgiven but faith is also strengthened. In that—those things that God has given for His Church, for her faith and life—the Holy Spirit takes up residence and works do follow. The only way for sinners like us to keep the Law is to have the Law kept for us.”
“The boys [of Bethlehem] gave up their lives while the fullness of God hidden in Mary’s babe slipped off in the night. What kind of a God is this who lets the babies die? What kind of a reward is this for David’s city? Where is the peace pronounced by angels to the shepherds in Bethlehem’s fields? Where is God’s good will toward men? The answer is not very satisfying to our intellect: the ways of God are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. But it is satisfying to faith. And if you think that you have plumbed those depths, that you understand Him, that His ways and thoughts make sense, then you have committed idolatry. You are worshiping a figment of your imagination which you call God but who looks and thinks like you. Repent. He is not fully comprehensible and we cannot judge Him. We have no right to make demands or to insist on what seems just to us. We submit in faith and wait for His goodness to be revealed.”
The Word Remains: Festival of the Reformation
“The Reformation, my friends, what was it? We know what the Church looked like before it, but what was it really? Judge whether this is true. I say, it was a time when the Lord went into His temple, braided a whip of cords, and cleansed His courts.
“Yes, the Reformation was a cleansing of the temple. Or is that not so? Where now do we have all that indulgence nonsense, masses for the dead, sacrifices of the mass, works-righteousness, and all the endless supply of worthless trinkets? That whole business was overthrown and swept out. The Word of the Lord drove into it like a punishing whip and put an end to the spiritual torment, the heavy yoke laid on by men and yet not humanly possible, but unbearable. The Word of the Lord burst in and overturned the chaos of self-interest, the marketplace of self- and works-righteousness. And the one who remained in the temple was the Lord with His apostles and disciples, with His sweet Gospel.”
-an excerpt from The Word Remains: Selected Writings on the Church Year and the Christian Life by Wilhelm Löhe (pp. 36-37)
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